Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) drew the ire of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party by caving to Republicans to avoid a government shutdown earlier this month, and he used his Tuesday appearance on The View to give yet another gift to Republicans.
“You know what their attitude is, ‘I made my money all by myself. How dare your government take my money from me?’ … They hate government — government’s a barrier to people. A barrier to stop them from doing things,” Schumer said.
I would imagine that Schumer’s comments will appear in dozens of GOP attack ads over the next couple of election cycles, and for good reason. While Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has come under fire over its ham-fisted style of rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse within the federal government, the effort remains largely popular with the public. Despite Schumer’s love affair with the tax man, I highly doubt the minority leader’s strategy of convincing taxpayers that they should give the government more of their money will play well on Main Street.
“’I built my company with my bare hands,’” Schumer said mockingly, “’how dare your government tell me how to treat my customers, the land and water that I own, or my employees.’” Schumer may not be aware that over 46% of the workforce is employed by a small business, and most of those companies were, in fact, built by the “bare hands” of their owners and employees. Nearly two-thirds of people own land, and aside from the terminally Stockholm syndrome-afflicted, few want the state interfering in how they manage their private property.
After a short honeymoon, President Donald Trump’s approval rating has come back down to earth, although it remains higher than at any point during his first term. While the president’s marks on immigration are high, his job approval on his handling of the economy is underwater by nearly 8 points. Amid an ever-changing cycle of implementing and scrapping tariffs aimed at America’s economic competitors and allies alike, and the nervousness surrounding Trump’s pledge to enact widespread reciprocal tariffs on April 2, the stock market is down across all indices since the 47th president took office. On March 11, the S&P 500 experienced its steepest decline in several months, erasing $4 trillion from its peak a month prior.
It’s still “the economy, stupid” to quote former Clinton strategist James Carville. The last two incumbent presidents were unable to overcome sluggish economies, and the Trump agenda may face an electoral impasse if the president’s economic policies keep the market on its current volatile trajectory. Perhaps Trump-friendly, yet economically literate pundits are correct that the president’s goal is only to wield tariffs as a bargaining chip that will usher in a period of free trade and prosperity, but even if the Trump tariffs stick this time, Democrats may be unable to capitalize on the administration’s blunders.
SCHUMER’S GRIP ON NEW YORK LOOSENS UNDER TRUMP 2.0
The Democratic Party, in its current iteration, is lost at sea. The party’s approval rating has fallen to a comically low 29%, and a new poll found that Democrats view Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as the leader who best reflects the values of the party, followed by the deeply unpopular former Vice President Kamala Harris and 83-year-old socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Trump and Republicans have given and will continue to give Democrats ammunition in their fight to regain power, but Democrats would have to paint themselves as the rational, economically literate counterpoint to Trump’s so-called chaotic economic leadership. I doubt that the top Democrat going on an unpopular talk show to preach the virtues of taxation and preserving government waste brings them any closer to that goal.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a musician, political strategist, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.
